Two months without a blog have come and gone. Finally ... the Split ... is back in the blogosphere!

For those of you who still don't know what's going on: This blog is going to concern itself with the topic of professional wrestling (in a way) and is also going to propose an idea. If I caught your attention, keep on reading to find out the details.

Wrestling has been an on-and-off "guilty pleasure" for me for almost two decades now. "Guilty" pleasure in the sense that wrestling is sort of looked down upon in society over here in general and in my family in particular. The "fakeness" of this form of entertainment has weighed it down considerably, I suppose the taboo of fixing an athletic competition (and a martial arts competition in particular) is a very primal one; if two people or teams are competing with each other, people consider instinctively despise learning that the competition was only faked and the winner was always going to be a certain person or team. Nevertheless, wrestling, in my opinion, is more of an athletically interpreted variant of soap opera. It's about telling a story, both outside and within the ring. Complaining about wrestling being scripted is a bit like complaining about soap operas being scripted; the intent of a soap opera is not to find out if the two protagonists are going to fall in love eventually, just as wrestling doesn't want to find out whether the supposedly dead man is a better fighter than the guy supposedly living in a boiler room.

But why do I bring up the topic? Surely not to defend wrestling as a presentable form of entertainment? No, indeed this is not the case. As I alluded to before, I'm here to propose a new community activity.
Have you ever heard of “fantasy wrestling”?

If your mind just jumped to a guy with a sheet of wrestlers in front of him, flipping through the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer – well, that's not it. In contrast to Fantasy Football or Fantasy Baseball, fantasy wrestling is not a stat-based game that relies upon scores awarded to a player based on the wrestlers he drafted. Come on, that's ridiculous! As I said before, you might as well draft soap opera characters! No, fantasy wrestling is all about how well you can cut a promo – sort of like the real thing, right?

I Present To You: The MyIGN Wrestling Federation

The basic idea is as follows: An eFed is the accumulation of a group of players. Each player portrays one character within the “company”. These characters may (depending on the rules agreed upon) be actual real word wrestlers like Steve Austin or Shawn Michaels, or they are completely original creations. You always thought you had the perfect idea for a gimmick, complete with catchphrases, mannerisms and move set? This is the way to prove it.

In regular intervals, the company will hold its events. Based on the size of the roster and the activity of the group this may be once a week, once a month or whatever the desired rhythm may be. Leading up to these events, matches are agreed upon. The outcome of the match is determined by the following period of time during which both (or all) participants will produce so-called promos: Postings of creative writing that tell the story that leads up to the match. Deciding factors are the quality of the writing, the presentation of one's own character, the truthful use of the opponent's character, language skills and so on. The posts are judged by a number of uninvolved, neutral judges that decide on who wins and how clearly he wins.

When all matches are decided and the results are in, the usual form of presenting the results is a “show”. The matches are described in detail, with important matches running longer than less important ones. Usually, a match will be written by somebody not involved, since this will, again, guarantee an unbiased representation of the wrestlers involved. The match should reflect the way the promos were judged by the committee: If one competitor thoroughly outclassed the other, the match will be a one-sided squash; if it was a close call, the result will be a hard-fought victory down to the last second.

Obviously, wrestling needs a few things to function: There need to be prizes to be won, which are the belts that adorn the waists of the champions. There are a few characters that nobody “owns”, like announcers, interviewers, ring announcers and so on. These things are best decided in a community effort so that people feel comfortable with the environment into which they will project their character.

Looking at this community with its diverse population of excellent writers, it occurred to me that an eFed would most likely be a thing of beauty, especially given the fact that most people here are gamers and will probably enjoy participating in a sort of community-wide game. The idea formed a few days ago when origianlusername presented his newly-shaped Bad Ass Award belts. It instantly shifted me into promo gear and I knew I had to give this thing at least a shot, especially given the fact there seems to be a general desire for community activities.

I'm definitely not trying to steal OUN's thunder here, I completely support his awards and think he's doing a nice thing to spotlight deserving community members. And since he already claimed the spot of CEO and chairman, I guess he'll play a big part in shaping this project here …

I'd love to receive feedback concerning what you guys think of this idea. Is this something you could get behind? Does it seem like it's a bit too complicated? Am I a complete nut-job? Let me know precisely what you think if you smeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllll what the Split … is … cooking!